Blood pounded in my ears.What have I done?
I looked up at the Light Bringer, expecting him to be smiling as he witnessed my allegiance.
Instead, he looked utterly horrified.
Mithras blinked, as if waking from a dream. “No,” he said, distantly, wretchedly.
The legionnaires, awake at last, entered the tomb, rushing to their lord’s side.
It was all too much—suddenly, agonizingly, it was all too much.
Something hit my back, heavy and hard, sending me sprawling into the dirt. A legionnaire was on top of me, blade poised over my throat. Several more were over the Shadow Bringer, ready to slice his head clean off. Stories whirled through my head, one after the other. Stories that would explain my innocence, that would prove the Shadow Bringer deceived me, used me. But as these stories eddied in my mind like the shadows pulling at my clothes, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was lying to myself. The Shadow Bringer’s hollowed, marred face sprang into my heart, unbidden and unwelcome, reminding me of the connection we had and the brief feeling of rightness that had come over me when I’d had possession of his power. Ofourpower.
The shadows made me feel as though I had, despite everything, a purpose.
From above the stairs of the tomb came a wild, unhinged laugh, snapping through the haze.
Mithras.
The Light Bringer dragged a hand across his swollen mouth, smearing the blood that occasionally pooled from it. A few strands of hair, wet with blood and dirt, stuck to his jaw. His eyes were cold despite their golden color, daggerlike and violent, and the flesh of his face had sunken, much like the Shadow Bringer’s had. It accentuated the scar that split his brow. A legionnaire offered him a bit of cloth, but he pushed it away.
“Like calls to like,” he murmured.
Like calls to like.
A lord of demons, connected tome.
“Our Maker is with us, even in the dark,” Mithras intoned. “We must walk in the shadows.”
“To walk in the light,” the Light Legion answered, voices wavering.
When Mithras spoke again, it was to the Light Legion.
“You have done well, faithful legionnaires,” he said sadly, blood trickling from his lips. He wiped at it, dragging it back into his mouth. Several legionnaires looked down, away—averting their eyes from their lord’s sunken skin, bruised body, and bloodied teeth. “Forgive me.”
And then he exploded.
Light shot from his body as a cloud of daggers, slicing into his legionnaires. They screamed in shock, leaping off the Shadow Bringer and me as they tried to defend themselves. Those who ran met Mithras’s blade on the stairs; those who didn’t run died as his volcanic light poured into their mouths and out of their eyes. It left them in strange skeletal husks inside their armor, as though their very essence had been dragged out from under their skin. In the chaos, what remained of the Shadow Bringer’s shadows carried him deeper into the tomb.
When the dust settled, all the legionnaires were dead.
All of them save Silas, who was at the tomb’s entryway with Elliot unconscious in his arms.
“Elliot!” I screamed. But he did not stir.“Elliot!”
“Listen quickly and carefully,” Mithras ordered, eyes wild as he grabbed me by the hand and yanked me up. I screamed, thrashing as hard as I could, but he was much stronger. “I will protect your brother and give him a privileged life in Istralla. In return, you will guard Noctis from the monsters the Shadow Bringer harbors. With him you will shield our world from the darkest shadows of the Realm.”
Bile rose sick and violent in the back of my throat.
“No,” I choked in fear, skin clammy and cold. Fear of the tomb—fear of theLight Bringer. The tomb would kill me. There existed no food, water, or light. There existed no way out, save for the colossal door of iron and stone at its front. I struggled against Mithras, trying to run for the stairs. “Let me go! I can’t believe youkilledthem!” I screamed. “Silas—help me!”
But Silas didn’t move. He didn’t evenacknowledgeme.
“This tomb is a font of darkness,” Mithras explained, forcing my attention back to him. “You will inhabit it physically and tether yourself spiritually. Asleep, you will draw the Dream Realm’s demons to you, binding them to the Shadow Bringer’s domain. In theory, your combined power should bind more demons, saving more human lives.”
A few threads of shadow rose in response to my terror, but I couldn’t focus—couldn’t control them. With a quick wave of his hand, Mithras extinguished them.
“I sensed it when I first met you,” Mithras insisted, turning to face me. “Power in the Realm is distributed to dreamers of similar capabilities. You are every bit as capable as he is—you just need time to practice, is all.” He added, voice lowering, “And besides, even if youdidn’thave power of your own, you’re still able to bolster his. You give him a strength I hadn’t imagined possible.”
